Greece votes, Tsipras wants 'fighting government'

Greeks voted on Sunday in the second general election this year to elect a new government that will implement the three year bailout agreed in the summer with international creditors.

About 9.8 million citizens of 18 years and above were registered to vote in 19,457 polling stations nationwide. The number of new voters is 108,464.

The two front-runners are former prime minister and leader of the radical-left SYRIZA party Alexis Tsipras and Evangelos Meimarakis of the conservative New Democracy party.

Tsipras asked weary Greek voters to deliver a "fighting government" capable of "moving forward with difficult reforms" as he cast his ballot in the country's closely-fought election, the fifth in six years.

"The Greek people will take their future into their own hands ... and seal the transition to a new era," Tsipras said in the working-class Athens district Kypseli. "I'm confident."

Meimarakis after casting his ballot: "I believe we will have a better future for all Greeks regardless of which party they vote for.

"I hope the result will vindicate Greek people's sacrifices," President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said.

Stavros Theodorakis, head of the centrist small Potami party, and Fofi Gennimata, leader of the PASOK socialist party, stressed the need for consensus after the elections.